Precious Memories | Page 7 of 11

Coming to Canada brought a year of surprises

By Osvalda Franklin – Dryden, Ont. My family and I came to Canada from Italy in April 1950. This began a time of discoveries for me – some pleasant and some not so much. For the [more…]

Did Santa not get their change of address?

By Mary (Thompson) Savage – Terrace, B.C. Our family moved from Northern Ontario to Orillia during the summertime. My older brother, Bill, was in Grade 4 at Westward School. My younger two brothers, David and George, [more…]

“Mom has Santa been here yet?”

By Merlin Roome – Qualicum Beach, B.C. I was four years old on the first Christmas Eve I remember. That was 80 years ago. I can still remember laying in bed and wondering if Santa [more…]

Life stages measured in Christmas trees

By Russ Stewart – Victoria, B.C. William Shakespeare wrote about the seven stages (acts) of man. As far as my wife and I are concerned, the stages of our lives can be measured in Christmas [more…]

Rock around the Homestead

By Tom Stewart – Ottawa, Ont. “You’re going where?!” My band mates were dumbfounded when I told them my plan. They couldn’t understand why, on a gruelling tour of western Canada, I would choose to [more…]

Sisters shared a pair of boys skates

By P. Gail Harrod – Ottawa, Ont. In the late 1940s in Regina, Sask., my parents tried to provide us with every experience they could. One winter day, dad brought home a pair of secondhand [more…]

Winter’s arrival is still delightful

By George Hill – Weyburn, Sask. When I look back to my childhood, I cannot believe that I could hardly wait for the arrival of winter! The end of the fall season – with all [more…]

Adventures in Christmas tree shopping

By Ione Skafte – Lethbridge, Alta. We took possession of our own home in February. How excited we were! I spent the first month going back and forth from our last rented home with a [more…]

“Santa” parcel arrived in the nick of time

By Phila Munn – Oxbow, Sask. We were a very poor and unhappy family by the Christmas of 1960. Mum and us kids were on our own. I was the eldest at 12, then my [more…]

Parents brought Ukrainian customs to Canada

By Naden Hewko – Macklin, Sask. My parents immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in the late 1920s, bringing their ethnic customs with them. We especially loved the Holy Supper shared the evening before Christmas Day. [more…]

My first Christmas away from home

By Ben McIntyre – Nanaimo, B.C. At the age of 20 and with only one year of teaching experience, I was sent to the new town of Uranium City, Sask., in September, 1952 to open [more…]

Catalogue toy pages were a dream world for kids

By Menno Fast – Winkler, Man. My best Christmas was in 1942 when I was 10 years old. We had a wonderful program in the two-room Passchendale School I attended for eight years, near Hague, [more…]

Dedicated to The Girls of ’52

By Liz Wilson – Calgary, Alta. “Would you like to walk with us?” These were the first words I heard on the University of Alberta campus as I started first-year Education in the fall of 1952. [more…]

Grandma’s handy-dandy aprons

By Doreen Chalmers – Fairview, Alta. When I was just a kid in the 1930s, my grandma made aprons from the sacks that flour, sugar, and seeds came in. After many washings, the sacks became [more…]

Fever dashed his hopes of making the team

By Julian Smith – London, Ont. The Kinsmen Club of Saskatoon started a new Peewee hockey league in 1937. Saskatoon had just built the new arena rink located downtown, near the technical collegiate. There were [more…]

All tress’d up with no place to go!

By Ione Skafte – Lethbridge, Alta. I lived on a farm in Wrentham, Alta., south of Taber, as a child. One of our small community’s social highlights was the annual Christmas concert and dance, complete [more…]

Rambunctious kids found new teacher tough but fair

By Victor Daradick – High Level, Alta. Can you imagine the poor teachers who had to try teaching these children? We really weren’t that bad – just bad enough to drive several teachers to near [more…]

Mom worked up courage to peek out window

By John Glawson – Nanton, Alta. My grandfather never owned a car. He had an old buggy and his horses. If he had to go long distances, he would get the bus. He owned land off [more…]

Santa was right there in the bedroom!

By Willard Boschman – Saskatoon, Sask. On Dec. 24, 1946, my brother Arnold was 11 years old, Marvin was 10, I was eight, my sister Lola was four, and James was two. We lived at [more…]

War’s outbreak saw mother left to raise six in a one-room house

By Angele Dalby – Penticton, B.C. When the Second World War began, the young men and women who were conscripted or volunteered went off to war. After a short training session they were shipped overseas [more…]